We were around only for the first part of the MSA hearing on the proposed lease-postponing ordinance, but that was more than enough. The meeting opened with an address from a representative of the Washtenaw Area Apartment Association (appropriately enough, WAAA). We didn’t catch his name because we were sitting on the floor in the middle of an over-capacity crowd of mostly students.
Geoff Larcom makes a case for supporting Seattle, “Ann Arbor’s soul mate,” this Sunday. Among the parallels:
Residents there have the Space Needle, which defines their skyline. We have Burton Tower, which defines our skyline.
Seattle has Pioneer Square, we have Pioneer High School.
Seattle has Puget Sound and Mount Rainier and we have Argo Pond and Mount Brighton.
Seattle has great seafood, we have the Real Seafood Company.
But there are more uncanny similarities. For instance, Nirvana is from Seattle, and Taproot is from Ann Arbor. Seattle has Microsoft, which undoubtedly uses a lot of tree data structures — and Ann Arbor is known as “Tree Town.” Kind of scary.
The public hearing for the mayor’s proposed ordinance that would push back lease-signing pressure is tonight at 6 pm. The News reports that students say that they “are being pressured to sign leases for their sophomore year during the first two months of their freshman year. The other problem is upperclassmen are being pressured to extend current leases soon after moving in.” Not just upperclassmen — grad students and faculty members too.
The more students and renters show up in support, the more unconvincing the landlords’ arguments about tenant-initiated pressure get. See you there.
Urban Oasis debuts the City Council Drinking Game, with a request for more ideas. But don’t try this at home in its present form; the first rule alone (”When a Public Comment speaker addresses the issue of Palestine, drink”) is enough to get you plastered by 7:50. (During the public comment portion, we like to play the self-explanatory but surprisingly challenging “NIMBY or Palestine?”)
Just what Ann Arbor needs: another “aspiring writer/artist.” But this one’s special; before he moves here, he wants to line up a female sponsor who’s “smart, attractive, younger than me, meaning under 30, and prepared to pay the bills” in return for “soaring conversation and passionate erotic ecstasy.” We knew there had to be a down side to A2’s strong showing on Sperling’s latest “Best Cities for Unemployed ‘Artists’ in Their Thirties to Sponge Off Younger Women” list.
The Arena’s proposal to close down a block for a March NCAA basketball celebration ran into some opposition at tonight’s City Council meeting, although it narrowly passed. Wendy Woods pointed out that the event might involve “young people,” of whom “many will be responsible, but many will not.” Chris Easthope argued that there was little difference between this event and Oktoberfest, but Joan Lowenstein disagreed. The basketball party would be “more likely to attract college students,” she said, and “drinking is a severe problem on campus.” By voting against this event where a bar would be serving alcohol presumably just to people with IDs, “we could do our part to show that we don’t approve of this.”
Well, we and a few unnamed co-conspirators have been talking about a drinking game for watching City Council on channel 16 for some time now, and a new rule has just suggested itself: “If Joan Lowenstein says something, drink.” Keep in mind that this game would likely attract young people, possibly even some in the binge-drinking-prone urban planning PhD student demographic. Councilmember Lowenstein, your duty is clear.
Memoranda from the Director of Operations uncovers an early-19th-century diarist who was doing this AAIO schtick long before we encountered our first tea tree oil toothpick. Although, unlike us, he appears to have been somewhat density-hostile. “[T]he town is laid into too small lots for so inland a place, and held at the most extravagant prices.” The culture didn’t impress him either. “The people are proud and distant; poor accommodations at the taverns.” Keep in mind that this was before Rick’s and Scorekeepers.
And don’t get him started on the “I Should Rather Be in Ann-Arbour” engravings adorning the back of every carriage in town.
Timothy Noah’s send-ups of the sort of journalists who wax eloquent about their pricey but tastefully modest summer homes while casting aspersions on newcomers who threaten to ruin the charm of the place are frighteningly applicable to A2. Just substitute “Washtenaw Dairy” for “good old Doc Brinkman’s Five and Dime” and “top eight stories” for “extend all the way to the property line.” Of course, Nantucket doesn’t really claim to be one of the nation’s top research and cultural centers.
“If you like your coffee with a touch of rebellion, consider giving Rendez-Vous Cafe a try,” gushes the News about the South U. coffeehouse. “[T]his coffeehouse might be a little different from the other eight million in Ann Arbor.” Well, if by “eight million”, you mean “three that aren’t Starbucks or Espresso Royale,” sure. Among the details that set it apart: “the music would most certainly be found in the ‘World’ section at Borders.” Edgy! Actually, we sort of like the Rendez-vous, whose late closing time and retro cafe furniture are a nice change from most A2 coffeehouses, but we usually avoid it because of the smoking section.
Former A2 planning commissioner Braxton Blake suggests a possible new slogan for Mayor Hieftje: “We must protect development from out-of-control neighborhoods.” Well, preservationists too, but that sounds like the right idea. Hieftje deserves credit for breaking with Blake and his fellow NIMBY-enabling planners.